Think about Jesus’ statement to love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. It is teamwork that makes love functional. Teamwork makes it possible to integrate your life with those you love. The Apostle Paul saw that clearly when he described the Body of Christ in the 12th chapter of his 1st letter to the Corinthians. It is an excellent description of a team. Forgiveness is a requirement for successful teamwork and the death and resurrection of Jesus is a sign of God’s forgiveness and a reason for forgiveness in human behavior.
An additional requirement for successful teamwork is a clear understanding of the reason why the team is working together. All those working on the Hubble telescope had a clear understanding of what the team was trying to accomplish. Such a clear understanding has rarely been true for Christianity in the past, but can easily be fixed. It seems to me that if God is the source of creation and is eternally present, then God is continuing to create in the world around us. Therefore a natural goal for Christian teamwork is assisting God with creation. In his book The Human Factor, Philip Hefner refers to Christians as God’s created co-creators.
One of the teachings of Christianity reflected in the life of Jesus is that every human life is important. Assuming that is true, the task of the created co-creators is to help all human beings live happy and productive lives. That is a challenging task, but will only be accomplished when the followers of Jesus become a unified team working toward the same goal and using prayer to obtain guidance.
Robert C. Frank
Author of Christ’s Team
